Peocess oe elotjbing



D. P. BONNELL.

Mill Bolt.

1` No. 6,648. Patented Aug. 14, 1849.

flour Trawy. ,21,21

Brac Ralf,

N. PETERS. Pmlvumagnphu, wnmu-gwn. uc.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEE'ioE..

DAVID P. BONNELL, OF TECUMSEH, MICHIGAN.

PROCESS OF FLOURING.

Specicaton forming part of Letters Patent No. 6,648, dated August 14, 1849; Ressued July 5,

To all whom t may' concern Be it known that I, DAVID P. BONNELL, of Tecumseh, in the county of Lenawee and Stat-e of Michigan, have invented or discovered a new and useful improvement in the mode of manufacturing wheat and other grain into flour, by which a greater yield of flour of an improved quality is produced from a given quantity of grain than has heretofore been produced, which is described as follows, reference being had tothe annexed drawing, making part of this specification, being a vertical section of a mill.

In the present mode of grinding wheat into flour about 4 bushels and twenty ve pounds of grain are required to produce a barrel of'superfine flour and the grinding process is so very defective that the flour is much injured and some of the most nutritious portions of the grain are incorporated with the oifal. Besides, for want of a second grinding of the oftal which is provided for in my method, the moisture is in part retained in the flour-it is thereby liable to turn sour in warm weather and is moreover difficult to raise in making it into bread.

My invention or discovery and improvement is designed to effect a saving of grain and an improvement in the our, by producing a barrel of superfine flour of an improved quality from twenty live pounds less wheat than by the old process, by regrindind the oft'al, thereby evaporating the moisture of the grain or farina and by preventing the sta-rchy portions of the grain from being ground too fine, save a large portion of the gluten of the grain and regrind it and mix it with the superfine flour by which very important results are produced, as will hereafter be described.

Before stating my improved mode of -manufacturing wheat into Hour, I will briey explain the method now practised by our millers in reducing the wheat to flour.

The grain after being properly cleaned is ground to nearly as uniform fineness as possible by passing it between the surfaces of the mill stones while under a motion of about 150 or 200 revolutions per minute, which grinds the starch of the wheat too fine, and the gluten not sufficiently fine, as will hereafter be explained. The meal is then thrown into the cooling room in a mass,

where it is stirred, aired, cooled, and dried; It is then drawn into two or more fine bolts of the usual construction and the flour, which is sufficiently pulverized, is sifted and discharged into the apartment for superfine flour. The remainder is then passed into two more bolts of a coarser cloth or mesh through which the flour is bolted or sifted and sent back to the cooling room to be mixed with the fine flour therein, so that a portion of it shall be incorporated with the superflue flour. The remainder of the stuffs is then passed into other bolts which separate it int-o middlings, shipstulfs, shorts, and bran. By this process of milling there will be about 69 pounds of offal to each barrel of flour. There will also be incorporated with, and attached to the waste stuffs or olfal, a large quantity of the glut-inous and nutritious properties which ought to be obtained and put into the superfine flour, in order to improve its quality and quantity. Recent experiments have shown that there are at least 3 times the quantity of gluten contained in one thousand pounds of bran, than in the same quantity of flour; and it is now, I believe, universally admitted, that the greater amount of gluten, flour contains, the greater amount of good bread will be obtained.

Millers well understanding this fact have long been endeavoring to obtain the greatest amount of pure flour from a given quantity of wheat and have consequently resorted to high and close grinding, dusting, and other operations; but without being able to accomplish the desired object; for, it is discovered that very high and close grinding of the wheat, in the first instance, reduces the starch to such a degree of fineness as to destroy the angular and granularI quality that it should possess, and to injure the flour materially; causing it in the bolting process, from its fineness and adhesiveness and ready admixture with the gluten, to clog the meshes of the first bolting cloths; and thus retard the bolting operat-ion; necessarily requiring the miller to resort to other means to separate the flour from the bran. Be-

sides all this a large portion of the fine flour is made to adhere to the bran and is carried 0H with it and is thus lost to the superfine portion or barrel, the gluten causing the close adherence of a portion of the starch to the bran, in connection with the gluten itself.

Now, after long experience as a practical miller and much observation and study as to the components, nature, and character of wheat, I have discovered a remedy for the above named evils, being in fact a process by which I produce a barrel of superfine flour of a bet-ter quality for all uses than heretofore, from a less quantity of wheat or grain than is new required to produce a like quantity of our.

My improved process consists in taking (after the first grinding and bolting operations in sift-ing the superfine flour from the ground stuffs) all the ofal as it leaves the common merchant bolts F and instead ofI passing it through the succeeding coarser bolts, as is usual, subjecting it immediately and continuously to a second grinding between an auxiliary pair of stones A, B, running at a higher speed than the main stones C D, say at the rate of 320 revolutions per minute by which the stuffs will nearly all be reduced to the same degree of fineness as the portion previously passed through the merchant bolts. The second grinding being thus completed, the stuffs are conducted to the lower merchant bolts E (or the dusters, if preferred) and such portion of the flour is bolted as the miller thinks proper to send back to the cooler, Gr, to be mixed with the stuffs that are to be passed through the upper merchant bolts F l to produce superiine iour, thus saving the glutinous, saccharine and most nutritious and valuable portions of the grain and mixing them with the superiine starchy particles of the flour.

This method I have ascertained, from experience, not only improves the quality of the flour by rendering itmore nutritious, less liable to sour when packed for transportation in warm weather, and more easily raised during the process of making it into bread; but greatly increases the quantity of superne flour from the same given quantity y of wheat over that produced by the old method. The remaining stuffs that pass from the lower merchant bolts E are separated for feeds in the usual manner.

By the old method of grinding and bolting there are four kinds of productssuperfine, middlings, shorts, and bram so that a portion of the most nutritious qualities of the farina is incorporated with, and lost in the subsequent grades. By my mode there are but two qualities-the superfine, which engrosses all the nutritious properties of the wheat, and the residuum,

the latter being all that is left after the superfine flour.

The advantages gained by my improved process of manufacturing our in addition to those already named, are first, wet or damp wheat may be ground much easier than the present mode, 'as the wheat is warmed by the first grinding and` thus partially lkiln dried by passing the ground wheat through the elevators, coolers, bolts, &c., so that when it is subjected to the second grinding in this partiallyA kiln dried state, the broken particles of wheat, which escape the first grinding process, are invariably reducedto flour by the second grinding, being brittle and more easily ground. Second, the time and expense of grinding middlings are saved, the work being `finished at one operation. Third, the flour is much more uniform, and bolts full 30 perl cent fasterthan by the old modes. It is also of a better quality as the starch is not so ne and the gluten ner than before, and it also contains a much larger proportion of the. latter which will have a tendency to preserve it from souring in warm weather and hot climates, and make it yield a greater amount of good bread from a given quantity of flour. Fourth', the quantity of flour is increased by catching all of the broken particles of wheat which escape in the stopping and starting of the mill and other causes and reducing them to Va proper degree of fineness. Fifth, the quality of the flour is improved by the incorporation into it of more gluten and nutritious matter, and by the grinding of thegluten line enough to bolt without getting the starch too fine. Sixth, the second grinding destroys the moisture of the farina and therebyprevents it from becoming sour. Seventh, by improved grinding, -by subjecting the .stuis or offal to the second or high grinding when in a partially kiln dried state from the previous or slow grinding and airing process, andpassng the stuffs from the upper bolts-to the auxiliary stones without interruption. Eighth, the saving in "bolting facilities, by having the flour ground more uniformly than by the old process and by its being drier, the regrinding process taking place when the `oifal is in apart-ially kiln dried state from the previous grinding, airing, stirring and bolting operations. v

There are other advantages Vderived from my improved process of flouring, but the foregoing will suiice to show the importance of the discharge.

Should the wheat have `been previously hulled, or unbranned, by Bentzs process, the whole quantity can be reduced to flour, thus increasing the yield still more.

l The second grinding of the offal may be done after it has left the lower or return bolts and Vbefore being introducedto the dusters, should the mill be so situated as to make it more convenient. f

to the cooler, or first bolts, but bolted in the flour to the cooler to be rebolted with v the superne flour, all by a continuous operation after the manner herein before described, so as to produce three new results:

rst, to get a greater quantity of superne flour out of any given amount of wheat .than is now obtained by any known method;

2nd, by exhausting the moisture from the grain to prevent the flour from becoming sour; and thirdly, to reduce the products to two kinds, superline flour, and a final residuum or bran, increasing the former and decreasing the latter or less valiable product, all as herein fully set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name beforetwo subscribing Witnesses.

D. P. BONNELL.

vWitnesses:

LUND VAsHINGToN, Sr., A. E. H. JOHNSON.

[FIRST PRINTED 1913.] 

